14 posts tagged “family”

I'll post more later.  I promise.  I'll give a nice rundown of my family vacation to Michigan 2 weeks ago.

For a sum up though, let me just say it was WONDERFUL!  I was so happy to be with my family who I hadn't seen in 2 years!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/metzdarling/sets/72157621527618100/

We also got to see a great air show and balloon launch at the Battle Creek Balloon Festival.

I apologize though, for the darkness and poor quality of some of the photos.  I really need to get myself a new camera!

 

 

I have found the secret to getting little boys who don't want to go to bed to actually WANT to go to bed.

Ben is having an EEG tomorrow, early in the AM, prescribed by a neurologist because he has some quirky neurological tics.  (LONG story for another time).

Part of the requirements for this EEG is that he be tired so they can get a certain reading.  So they asked that we keep him up as late as possible tonight.  We laughed, ha ha ha, Nooooo problem, we'll have a harder time getting him to bed than getting him to stay up.

Around 7ish I told him "Guess what Ben, you get to stay up as late as you want tonight!"

Typical challenging child he is, "How late exactly?"

Me:  "At least til' midnight."

Him.  "YAY!"

Around 8:30ish I can see he's tired, I offer a snack to give him some energy.  Around 9ish he's still flagging and actuallyl asks, "How much longer before we can go to bed?"

LOL, note the use of the word "Can" as opposed to "have".

I said, "Three hours, why are you tired and wanting to go to bed?"  Which of course prompted the expected, "Me?  TIred?  NO I'm not tired, just asking is all, nothing to see here, move along..."

9:30, I had to give him a tiny infusion of caffeine, tiny I swear.  He's so unused to it within 5 minutes he was running around the house like crazy.  But that could've just been from the excitement over having such a rare treat. 

9:45-10:30 he kept looking at the clock and asking if it was midnight yet.

He made it from 10:30 to 11:00 without asking, but about quarter after 11 he asked again.

Now it is after midnight and we're going to bed.  And I think he is secretly very happy.

The fun part will be waking him up EARLY after this very long night.  Wish us luck.

 

Hey guys, give this lil' guy a chance.  He's on the voting pages of Once Upon a Win, currently at page 7 and going further back each day. 

I was recalled back to my childhood in a second when i found this book and it's companion, The Little Puppy in a box of books from my Mom.  Yes, I just read those two books to my son.  Life really is a circle.  OMG.  Cue the Lion King Theme music!!!

 EDIT: GRRR, HTML isn't working here.  GRRR. http://onceuponawin.wordpress.com/files/2009/03/win-pics-the-little-kitten.jpg

Seriously though, these books are a riot to look at nowadays.  Those kids just made it look SO easy to take care of their puppies, kittens, rabbits, lambs, etc...!  And the styling clothes and hair! Oh yes, those WERE the days.  :-p

 

In other news, Gabby just completed her first role in a community theater production (Youth workshop) of High School Musical 2.  She was ensemble, and in my humble opinion, the most beautiful girl on that stage.  :-)

I am so proud of her for doing it.  And I have DKN to thank for helping to get her up there on that stage.  When she got the call she was given an ensemble part she had gotten herself so worked up about it she nearly didn't take it, call it cold feet or a case of sour grapes, she was going to nix the whole thing, she wasn't listening to what I had to say, what kids do right?  So I PM'd Mz. Dora aka Wonder Woman!  and she gave Gabby a pep talk phone call and got her to give it a shot.  This past month and a half have been the best, she has done better in school, and gone every day with a huge smile on her face, and the look on her face when she saw the program after the 1st show that not only showed her as in the ensemble, but also a separate listing as "Assistant to the Musical Director."  OMG.  She was talking about "next time" even before we left the theater the 1st night.  This kid is heading to Broadway, watch out!  :-)

 

I was taking photos of some things around the house and I saw these two pics of Gabby when she was about 2ish.

These were just regular 35mm snapshots scanned in and enlarged.  No professionals were involved.  They are my favorite photos of all time.

 

 

Look how different she looks now!

 

 

 

 

Now to be fair I have to throw a pic of my boy in here.  :-D  Here he is on his 6th birthday which also happened to be the 1st day of school.

 

Here's what I was aiming for when I first started taking pics tonight.

I made some flower craft at library craft classes recently.

 

 

We also got a new resident in our household who we hope will help us to keep our fuel oil costs down this winter.

 

So, how random can you get?  Old kid pics, flower craft pics, and a wood burning stove.  :-D

Ben was playing around with some Iron Man Sunglasses I assume he got from a McKinglish Childtype Personage Meal.

Renee our Pom mix was nearby.

This was the result.

:-D

 

Also just for fun here's some photos of the kids and (gasp) me.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited to add pics of Dusty:  and thank you all for your kind words, comfort, congrats, and snorgles on behalf of Butterscotch.  :-) 

Also, must tease here:  I'm gonna meet Butterscotch next weeeek! (sing song voice)

 

Those of you who visit http://www.cuteoverload.com/ know there is a category of Cute Or Sad right?

Well right now my life has been so full of ups and downs that it's bordering on Happy or Downright Depressing!

So what to start with? A high or a low?

Hmmm.  So I'll be selfish I'll start with happy.

The same day I found out I was going to be going to visit my family in MI afterall I also found out that I have actually been officially "published" or as my dear friend Matthew said, "E-Published"

I was at work about to shut down my comp for the night when I remembered I had wanted to peek in at the

A Prairie Home Companion's Website.  I had been semi-worried that the crew from this wonderful radio program had been in some way involved in that horrible bridge tragedy in the Twin Cities.  I was relieved to note that Mr. Keillor took the time to assure everyone that he and his associates were as far as he knew ok.  He took the time to tell us about a young woman who was shot in South Africa, stating that "Life is fragile, though, and there are plenty of reminders."

I felt a bit better, still incredibly sad and worried about the whole thing but somehow reassured.  I was about to exit when as is my habit while visiting the site I scrolled down to their First Person section where they post a few stories & poems from listeners who've submitted them.  |'ve been submitting stuff for a while a few short stories & poems here and there.  Not ever really expecting anything but well, you never know right?  So this time like all the times before I scrolled down to view that little box of hope on the right side of the main page.  I hung there for a second and my hand moved the mouse up to the "X" of the explorer window when my brain finally caught up with reality and yelled "Hey!  That's MY name!!!!!!"  I looked, I looked again, sure enough there it was plain as day. 

 

Sun Rising by Teresa Rothman

Mind you my ego was only slightly deflated by the fact that I had a very obvious typo in my About the Author section, but only  a little.  The fact that I even have a publicly viewable blurb chosen by someone not in my control or just being nice to me and that I have an opportunity to even make up an About the Author blurb at all totally makes up for it.

It was questionable whether I'd drive or fly home from work that night.  I'm sure I did one of those two, I can't really remember now.

 

Ok now for a sad.

Today my husband and his mother took one of our 5 dogs, Dusty (my husband Rob's dog through and through) to the vet.  He'd been limping and stiff in the hindquarters lately and when I was giving them baths on Sunday I'd noticed some bleeding at the anus.  Also there was a huge lump of some type on his back/hip/tail base area.  The vet is pretty certain it's a tumor and although he referred us to a specialist (we'll be taking him Thursday) he's pretty sure the outcome isn't that hopeful and said it's likely we'll have to have him "put down".  Rob is not taking it so well.  This is his buddy and friend.  I'm just as upset too, he is such a sweet, mellow laid back dog.  The most easy going dog I have ever had/known.  Very affectionate and playful, just not a care in the world.  Until now.  I'll keep y'all posted on his prognosis as it develops.  Just cross your fingers for us that it's not as serious as his vet fears.

 

 

Not to leave you down in the dumps here's a bit of sweet sunshine in the form of my Mom's cat Butterscotch.  Whom has taken over the household as if it was destined to be hers from before birth.  Blue has something to say about that but well she's learning to tolerate the little usurper.

 

Ok done now.  Snorgle & huff away!

Sunday we went to the local park Ecology Center: (Edit: Note almost all of the animals here are either 1) being rehabilitated or 2) were rescued from injuries (or bad peeps) and are unable to return to the wild.) where they have a free zoo with my daughter, her best friend and my son.  *shaking head* I don't get it.  When I was a kid I spent HOURS walking around looking at animals, even ones I saw every day whenever I went to my local zoo.  These kids, they just wanted to get through the zoo as quickly as possible and get to the playground.

*sigh*

Anyway, I gots some WONDERFUL pics of some of the local residents of the zoo.

 

And here is the special dessert.

While lunching at the peecneek tables at the park the kiddoes got all excitedable about something and my daughter whispered to me over the table, "Mommy there's a squirrel RIGHT behind you."  Sure enough this little guy was munching on some goldfish crackers dropped by (I'm assuming) the table's previous tenants.  I'm thrilled to share his royal highness King Redeye.  (on account I ain't got photo fixing softwares here at work and can't fix his eyes sorries).

 

Oops missed the bestest one of all sorries.

 

Ok so our (2nd) family computer crapped out on us a couple of weeks ago.  (The 1st is technically my husband's).

So we hooked up an old one we'd more or less abandoned when it got too creaky and un-upgradable as a temporary measure until our "good" one is fixed or replaced. 

I had thought everything had been cleaned out on it but while doing some exploring to see what was left I came across this little gem of a slide show made on an obsolete picture program.  I tried to save & copy the individual pics but wasn't able to right click on them, durn it.  I was able to do screen prints of each "slide" and copy them and crop them in paint then I "blew" them up a bit so sorry if they're a tad blurry.

This is my daughter Gabby when she was about a year old.

 

It's amazing how much she has changed in the past 9 years.

 

Well I don't know about you guys but I had a busy weekend.  When my mother in law is not at a craft fair on the weekends I find that suddenly there's a lot more to do.

 

Anyway, to end the weekend on a bright note I got an email from my Mom with some yummy new pics of Butterscotch.  So refreshing after two hot & humid days.

So sweet.

Plus a cutie one of my Dad taking a cat nap with her.  :-)

Enjoy.

Metz

 

Show us something that's ridiculously cute.

My children singing & dancing.

Nuff said.

:-)

Just try, TRY not to fall in love, or awwwwww.  Or giggle or smile while watching these.

Sorry I don't have the actual videos on my computer but here's the link to where they are.

http://www.ringo.com/member/video.html?photoId=207648898

http://www.ringo.com/member/video.html?photoId=207649979

Just try.

I dare you.